I'd like to submit these questions related to the LDP election victory to anyone who'd care to comment, but particularly to the political scientists.

The recent election was held under electoral conditions that were earlier judged unconstitutional. Huh? May the legislature ignore the constitution with impunity?

Is this the return of one party rule to Japan? Is this the end a period in which the possibility seemed to exist of two or more viable Japanese parties, differing even slightly in policies and values, either/any of which the electorate could reasonably imagine governing? Or does the recent election conversely suggest that such a system now does exist?

The LDP wants to limit freedom of speech during national emergencies. What does the LDP have against freedom of speech?When has freedom of speech hindered Japan's government in a national emergency? Thinking back on the Hanshin earthquake, the Aum terror, the Tohoku earthquake and nuclear fiasco, I can't come up with any harm that free speech caused to national security. Isn't this simply a way to muffle political dissent? If the current Senkaku situation were declared a national emergency any suggestions that China's position contains a smidgen of merit could be banned.
The nuclear mess will take decades to get under control. And national security was this year added to the purposes of Japan's nuclear power regime in the 原
子力基本法. If the multiple melt-through situations were deemed an emergency, the government could ban antinuclear speech, to say nothing of posting on the internet radiation readings from one's backyard or groceries. This goal is to me by far the most ominous of Abe's plans. What's his problem with free speech?

Greg Johnson